


A Mighty Steed

by TheCursor



Category: Ant-Man (2015), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-17
Updated: 2015-08-02
Packaged: 2018-04-09 19:17:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4361105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCursor/pseuds/TheCursor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Musings of Antony the Ant</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Saddle

The cocoon cracked open and the newborn ant shook the afterbirth of it's pupae stage then it stretched out the legs of it's brand new exoskeleton. The large female worker that had been his nurse maid for most of this young ant's life helped him pull the rest of his cocoon from his thorax with her mandibles and then promptly began eating the silky substance, which both kept the nursury clean and also helped give the busy worker a quick protein boost. Once it was finally free of it's egg sac, the young male unfurled his wings and then briefly tested them to see that everything was in working order. 

Yes, good. No defects. Clean. He thought. 

Suddenly there was a loud buzzing sound as the newborn "heard" someone "speaking" to him through his scent glands. His antennae twitched as the powerful "voice" barked out orders.

"All newborn workers are to follow instinct, all newborn males and queens are to report for livery." 

The newborn ant thought this was odd, because his instinct told him to simply go find food but this order seemed to appeal to his "higher reasoning", almost like it was tickling the simplistic "pleasure" centers of his ant brain. The Newborn looked towards his Nurse, the closest thing he had to a role model, and he released a puff of pheromones into her scent glands. "Who this?" He scent-asked her. 

"Friend." replied the Nurse

"Queen?" He asked.

"No, Giant." 

"What is Giant?" 

"Go see." 

And so he did, travelling through the intricate tunnels of his carpenter ant home. He did not require a guide despite only being two minutes old because he could smell the well travelled paths of his fellow ants from generations and generations that came before him. Each single pheromone was like a history lesson for his nose and as he walked, the Newborn learned the history of his colony. They were the in the 20th year of the 2nd Queen, long may she reign, and they were living in a climate controlled environment that was deep and long but not wide and some of the colony tunnels were exposed to light, which was unusual. Food was excellent, plenty of protein and high in carbohydrates. There were no aphids, which upset the colony but the water was plentiful without a risk of flooding.

When he arrived at the surface, the male found himself in a brightly lit glass container with huge bright lights hovering over him. 

And there was a face, a large alien being that seemed intent on examining him. "I am your friend." Said the strange face.

"Good," Said the male, "Like friend." 

And then the huge alien carefully presented him with a small piece of metal and plastic which he set upon the ground in front of the male. "Put on back, fasten straps. "

Suddenly the Newborn received a strange image inside his primitive brain. He saw himself, climbing under the machine, and then touching a red button on the front of the machine. Then straps deployed around his thorax and held the device to his body. He followed the images in his head until the device was indeed fastened to his back.

"What this?" Asked the Newborn.

"Saddle" It said.


	2. Flight

The events that occurred inside the "Large Concrete House" were rather confusing for the young male, now known as Unit 248. 

First there were the rather complicated sets of sensory instructions that Giant-Friend had insisted they follow to the letter. These directions were not impossible but Carpenter Ants like 248 were rather simple minded creatures and the sheer number of moving parts in Giant-Friend's plans were starting to hurt 248's tiny brain. There were cameras that needed to be blocked, a tiny suit that needed to be dragged down a hallway, then they needed to press a button to enlarge the suit, then there were further success conditions after that point as well. 

Most of those tasks went off without a hitch. 248's colony mates dragged the suit inside while their Crazy Ant associates burned out the connections on the hallway cameras. Getting the suit inside was easy. 

It was the hairless ape wearing the suit who proved to be the biggest problem, however. He was very inexperienced and after jumping so hard onto his back, 248 worried that his exoskeleton was going to crack. 

"Pain." 248 "said", "Much Pain." 

"Return home." Giant-Friend said through the "ear"-piece. 

"New Friend Pulls Hard." 248 responded. 

And 248 was right, the stupid human in the suit kept yanking on the saddles' handle bars and shifting his weight. It was all 248 could do to keep himself upright as he ascended above the city and towards the Bay Area. "Stop yank." 248 said to Giant-Friend through the ear piece, "Too Hard."

Giant-Friend started babbling to the Small Friend in that odd clicking language that humans use but it seemed to have no affect, Small Friend again pull hard on the reigns and 248 had no choice but to spin into a barrel roll. "Too Hard!" 248 shouted, "Lose Cargo." 

"Retrieve." Giant-Friend said 

And 248 dived hard towards the tiny monkey's body. 

"Small Friend is Stupid." He thought.


	3. Associates

248 did not like the other ants from the other colonies. The carpenter ants from his own colony were perfectly fine and 248 felt the instant camaraderie that came with being part of an insect hive mind. But these other ants, these foreigners...248 simply didn't like them very much. 

The crazy ants were, true to their name, absolutely insane. They were always getting distracted by "humming" electric devices and they marched in staggered messy formations. This behavior offended 248 on an instinctual level. According to his very genetic code, everything was supposed to be ordered, straight, and precise. Sloppiness was annoying to him. Very annoying. 

And if the crazy ants were too erratic, the bullet ants were the exact opposite: 248 had never met such obsessive, detail oriented creatures in his entire year of life (which for an ant was quite a long time). Bullet ants did not engage in idle scent chatter, did not enjoy following foraging trails. Bullet ants marched and fought. That was literally the only thing they thought about. 248 thought they were boring. 

But the worst of all were the fire ants. They were the most arrogant creatures 248 had ever met. They believed they were the most brilliant creatures in evolutionary history, they thought everything they did was a work of utter perfection. When Giant-Friend sent fire ant workers into the carpenter ant colony, those ants immeadiately spread scent trails of disapproval about everything. The walls of the colony were poorly built, they'd say, or the carpenters weren't organized enough. 248 couldn't stand them. 

"Ugly." Said one of the Fire Ant workers as they marched past. 

"Stupid." 248 snarled.


	4. Training

So it was now a foregone conclusion that Small Friend was going to be taking over some of Giant-Friend's duties as the master of the colonies. 248 personally preferred interacting with Giant Female, who seemed to have a more nuanced understanding of Ant culture and custom, but it was not his place to question Giant-Friend's selection process. 

Still Small Friend had a lot to learn.

248 watched as Giant-Friend invited Small Friend to engage in an exercise with members of 248's colony. 

"Orders?" Asked the ants.  
"Potatoes." Replied Small Friend.  
248 and his fellow ants looked up at him with confusion, "Repeat, potatoes?"  
"No, aphid harvest."  
That got a few of the workers excited because aphid juice was delicious but suddenly everyone realized there were no aphids anywhere in sight. "Where Aphids?"  
"Collect in hole."  
This response, if you know anything about ant language, made literally zero sense since according to ant speech, the word "hole" had hundreds of grammatical uses and the word "collect" could never be used in the same sentence as "hole".

The workers and 248 stared at him blankly. "What?"

"No...wait..." 

Suddenly Giant Female yanked the beige looking object away from Small Friend and shouted out in perfect, unaccented ant-speak: "Put the sugar in the cup." 

"Affirmative." Replied the workers.


	5. Antony

Small-Friend looked down at 248 through the "Magic glass" object Giant Friend often used. 

Small-Friend had forgotten to close the verbal link on his ear piece so his next words were confusing and not properly formatted for Ant brains: "I'll call him Antony." 

248 had no idea what that was supposed to mean, was that a new kind of name? A number? Was he to answer to this phrase now? 

Puns, like all forms of humor, are lost on ants and Antony simply didn't understand why Small-Friend kept cracking the exoskeleton on his mandibles. 

248 was now Antony, why was that funny?


End file.
